Salocin

Wharton International Cultural Show

The Wharton International Cultural Show is a huge annual performance incorporating 26 acts from different regions of the world, presented to a packed Annenberg Theatre by a cast of approximately 300 Wharton students, who have rehearsed for 2-3 months. The show manages to fill the theatre two nights in a row, and is one of the most colorful and energetic events of the academic year. This year's show had a hard act to follow given the success of last year's event, but proved to be a huge success nevertheless.

It's easy to say that a school is very "international", but what does that really mean? Sure there's people from loads of different cultures in class, but we all conform to an educational model, turning up in class with the same expectations and the same preparation, and interacting according to norms set more by the Wharton school's local environment than by any overriding culture.

Internationalism seems therefore to be quite constrained at times - potentially present, given the wide breadth of nationalities and backgrounds, but never quite manifesting itself or creating the proverbial "cultural melting pot" so often described (more often than not by people who would have no idea what this melting pot looked like if it were staring them in the face).

Then you see the Wharton International Cultural Show, and can only stare in wonder as the many rich cultures parade their arts, dances, song and customs in front of the school at the close of the academic year. It's almost as if to say, "Look what we might have experienced if only we had let ourselves". From African and Chinese dances to martial arts, salsa, acrobatic rock and roll, southern music or Russian folk dances, the stage was a non-stop 3-hour parade of aspects of cultures we have been surrounded by - more often than not, unknowingly - for the past two years.

Look again at your neighbour in class. In less than 4 hours, they're going to be on stage doing a backflip, or breaking through a wooden plank, or dancing Flamenco, or singing in Arabic.